The invention concerns a device for the position-adjustment and attachment of at least one locking member first part on a support, said locking member first part being of the type including a base the internal face of which is adapted to be held clamped in plane bearing engagement against said support by means of at least one nut-and-bolt assembly and a body connected to said base designed to cooperate with a locking member second part rigidly fastened to a part to be assembled to said support, to effect the assembly of said part to said support.
The invention applies more particularly, but not exclusively, to the attachment of motor vehicle traction battery locks to a motor vehicle body or to a battery frame attached to the body with a view to assembling the traction battery to the motor vehicle body or to the frame attached to the body.
Numerous examples of arrangements for mounting a traction battery in a motor vehicle are known. In most of these arrangements, the battery is attached rigidly, by means of attachment locks, either to a frame that carries it, intended to be attached to the body of the vehicle, or directly to the body of the vehicle. Each attachment lock is in fact constituted of a male member rigidly fastened to a first element selected from the battery and the body (or frame), typically the battery, and a female member attached to the second element selected from the battery and the body (or frame), typically the body (or frame), and adapted to receive the male locking member in mutual interengagement thereby to assure the attachment of the battery to the body (or frame).
A conventional battery forms a compact assembly of high mass, possibly weighing more than 200 kg, and must therefore be attached by a large number of these attachment locks to the vehicle body or to the frame attached to the body. The number of attachment locks is typically greater than three and most often at least equal to four.
A major disadvantage of attachment systems of this type is that they work correctly only on condition that the relative positioning of the male and female members during mounting of the battery are perfectly controlled and reproducible from one vehicle to another. In particular, it is important for the four retaining points to be perfectly aligned in a plane Z, i.e. in the direction of mutual interengagement of the locking members.
Indeed, if the four retaining points are not coplanar, there is a risk of a certain number of problems arising. In particular, the battery may be damaged because it cannot be deformed beyond a certain critical threshold liable to compromise its physical integrity. Moreover, the locking force being a function of the distance between the corresponding male and female locking members, variations in Z between the four members positioned on the support can lead to problems with the reliability of the attachment lock having the greatest distance between its male and female members during mounting of the battery on the support.
In the case of the vehicle body, there exist large dimensional variations liable to affect the positioning of the four female locking members in the same plane. In the case of mounting the battery on a frame, when attaching the latter to the vehicle body, the frame and/or the body are deformed, likewise affecting the coplanar relationship of the four female locking members.
Given these dimensional variation constraints, the alignment in Z of the (at least) four locking members on the body (or frame) is rendered problematic in that it is difficult to position them in the same plane.